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Thinking on Unstable Ground: The Topology of Sense in Merab Mamardashvili
Series: - Contemporary Russian Philosophy, Volume: 11
Author:
How do we make sense of the world? On what foundation do we consider something worthy, beautiful, true, or even real? This book explores the philosophical work of Merab Mamardashvili, a widely popular thinker during the Soviet era, yet unjustly unknown in Western philosophy. Drawing on his topological approach to epistemology, this book illustrates his journey into the elusive ground that shapes what becomes thinkable. This is the first full reconstruction of Mamardashvili’s thought. It makes visible key concepts developed across his lectures and writings, and presents them in relation to major Continental debates on foundation and difference.
Elisa Pontini, Ph.D., is an independent researcher working in theoretical philosophy and Soviet thought. She completed her M.A. at the University of Turin with a thesis on the philosophy of Merab Mamardashvili. In 2024 she completed her doctoral dissertation on “Topology of Difference: Trace, Repetition and Responsibility in the Philosophy of Merab Mamardashvili” at Radboud University Nijmegen. Her publications have appeared in Studies in East European Thought and in the edited volume Rethinking Mamardashvili(Brill, 2022).
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Introduction
1 Mamardashvili’s Theoretical Framework: a Reconstruction
1 Overarching Questions
2 Theoretical Framework
3 The Rules of the Game: Topological Space or the Path to Rachel’s Face
4 Queen or Prostitute? Polyvalence of the Topological Space
5 Who Is Rachel After All?
6 Listening to the Voice of Being
7 Machines and Their Functioning
8 Conclusion
2 The Roots of Mamardashvili’s Topological Approach: Patternness and the Problem of Form in Hegel
1 Young Mamardashvili and Hegel
2 On Hegel’s Logic: How Forms Take Shape
3 The “Immanent Soul of Content”
4 Understanding the Immanent Soul: Theory of Knowledge and Science
5 Questions on Patternness
6 Characteristics of Patternness
7 Topological Patternness
8 A Physical Topos with Textual Reality
9 Organic Knowledge
10 Conclusion
3 Transverted Forms: a Topological Reading
1 Young Mamardashvili and Marx
2 Transverted Form
3 Phenomenology of Transverted Forms
4 Open Questions
5 Topological and Predicational
6 Conclusion
4 A Journey into the Unknown Homeland: Mamardashvili’s Account of the Topological Space
1 A Battle for the Definition of Reality and Its Laws
2 Mamardashvili’s Reading of Hegel: Noumenal Marginality
3 A Phenomenological Reading of Marx
4 Transverted Phenomenality
5 Ideological Interpolations
6 The Unknowability of the Foundational Ground and Its Origin: an Axiomatic Approach
7 A Common Foundational Ground
8 Consciousness
9 Symbols as Embodied Transverted Forms
10 Impossible Reality
11 Conclusion
5 A Journey into the Unknown Homeland: Mamardashvili’s Account of the Subject
1 “Time and Again”: Repetition
2 “At One’s Own Risk”: Personal Responsibility
3 Labor and Effort
4 Intermittence, Grace, and Risk
5 “In the Moment When I Think”: Locality and “Eventness” of the Act of Knowledge
6 Trace
7 A Possible Human Being
8 Truth as Testimony
9 Freedom and Possibility to Think the New
10 Political Significance of Mamardashvili’s Position on the Subject
11 Conclusion
6 Alienation as Opportunity: Dialogue with Althusser and Sartre
1 Effects of the Publication of Marx’s Early Writings
2 Main Concepts: Consciousness, Organic Whole, and Its Internal Relations
3 Mamardashvili and Althusser: Intellectual Affinity
4 Topology and Overdetermination
5 Contra Sartre
6 Alienation as Opportunity
7 Conclusion
7 Foundation as Différance
1 Malheur de la Conscience or Joie de Vivre?
2 Deconstructive Approach: Primary Complication of the Origin
3 Deferral, Supplementarity, and Topological Patternness
4 Directionality
5 Transverted Form
6 Performing Difference
7 Speaking and Writing
8 Conclusion
8 Foundation as Differénciation
1 Mamardashvili and Deleuze
2 The Event of Thought: Time
3 The Event of Thought: Sense
4 The Event of Thought: Space
5 Immanence of the Unknown Homeland: Rachel as Simulacrum
6 Affirmation, Choice and Individual Responsibility
7 Conclusion
9 Making (a) Difference: the Relevance of Mamardashvili’s Theoretical Setting
1 Spy of the Unknown Homeland: Keeping Parallel Differences Together
2 The Personal and the Political in Mamardashvili’s Understanding of Difference
3 Theoretical Relevance of Mamardashvili’s Understanding of Difference
4 Conclusion
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Abbreviations
Note on Translation and Transliteration
Introduction
1 Mamardashvili’s Theoretical Framework: a Reconstruction
1 Overarching Questions
2 Theoretical Framework
3 The Rules of the Game: Topological Space or the Path to Rachel’s Face
4 Queen or Prostitute? Polyvalence of the Topological Space
5 Who Is Rachel After All?
6 Listening to the Voice of Being
7 Machines and Their Functioning
8 Conclusion
2 The Roots of Mamardashvili’s Topological Approach: Patternness and the Problem of Form in Hegel
1 Young Mamardashvili and Hegel
2 On Hegel’s Logic: How Forms Take Shape
3 The “Immanent Soul of Content”
4 Understanding the Immanent Soul: Theory of Knowledge and Science
5 Questions on Patternness
6 Characteristics of Patternness
7 Topological Patternness
8 A Physical Topos with Textual Reality
9 Organic Knowledge
10 Conclusion
3 Transverted Forms: a Topological Reading
1 Young Mamardashvili and Marx
2 Transverted Form
3 Phenomenology of Transverted Forms
4 Open Questions
5 Topological and Predicational
6 Conclusion
4 A Journey into the Unknown Homeland: Mamardashvili’s Account of the Topological Space
1 A Battle for the Definition of Reality and Its Laws
2 Mamardashvili’s Reading of Hegel: Noumenal Marginality
3 A Phenomenological Reading of Marx
4 Transverted Phenomenality
5 Ideological Interpolations
6 The Unknowability of the Foundational Ground and Its Origin: an Axiomatic Approach
7 A Common Foundational Ground
8 Consciousness
9 Symbols as Embodied Transverted Forms
10 Impossible Reality
11 Conclusion
5 A Journey into the Unknown Homeland: Mamardashvili’s Account of the Subject
1 “Time and Again”: Repetition
2 “At One’s Own Risk”: Personal Responsibility
3 Labor and Effort
4 Intermittence, Grace, and Risk
5 “In the Moment When I Think”: Locality and “Eventness” of the Act of Knowledge
6 Trace
7 A Possible Human Being
8 Truth as Testimony
9 Freedom and Possibility to Think the New
10 Political Significance of Mamardashvili’s Position on the Subject
11 Conclusion
6 Alienation as Opportunity: Dialogue with Althusser and Sartre
1 Effects of the Publication of Marx’s Early Writings
2 Main Concepts: Consciousness, Organic Whole, and Its Internal Relations
3 Mamardashvili and Althusser: Intellectual Affinity
4 Topology and Overdetermination
5 Contra Sartre
6 Alienation as Opportunity
7 Conclusion
7 Foundation as Différance
1 Malheur de la Conscience or Joie de Vivre?
2 Deconstructive Approach: Primary Complication of the Origin
3 Deferral, Supplementarity, and Topological Patternness
4 Directionality
5 Transverted Form
6 Performing Difference
7 Speaking and Writing
8 Conclusion
8 Foundation as Differénciation
1 Mamardashvili and Deleuze
2 The Event of Thought: Time
3 The Event of Thought: Sense
4 The Event of Thought: Space
5 Immanence of the Unknown Homeland: Rachel as Simulacrum
6 Affirmation, Choice and Individual Responsibility
7 Conclusion
9 Making (a) Difference: the Relevance of Mamardashvili’s Theoretical Setting
1 Spy of the Unknown Homeland: Keeping Parallel Differences Together
2 The Personal and the Political in Mamardashvili’s Understanding of Difference
3 Theoretical Relevance of Mamardashvili’s Understanding of Difference
4 Conclusion
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
This book is of interest to scholars, libraries, and students in philosophy, especially those focused on Continental thought, epistemology, Soviet intellectual history, and debates around the thought of difference.